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"For every dozen social media sites that die there's one behemoth to take their place." Like Myspace did to Geocities. Like Facebook did to Myspace. Like TikTo

"For every dozen social media sites that die there's one behemoth to take their place." Like Myspace did to Geocities. Like Facebook did to Myspace. Like TikTok did to Facebook. It's been a churn of platforms scaling too large, becoming too expensive to run, subsequently attempting to monetize users in a way that causes a flee that collapses the platform, with everyone running to the new hot thing thats burning through investor cash to promote unchecked growth. Sunrise sunset.

pmoriarty 3y ago
I don't see monetization efforts as what drives users away, but rather seeing a new, trendy alternative and the old sites seeming antiquated by comparison. "It's where all the cool kids are" draws people in. The extreme outrage amongst mainstream users over Reddit trying to earn a buck here is an anomaly. In Reddit's case there is no trendy alternative to migrate over to, so all the users taking their ball and angrily stomping off will be back.
- scheeseman486 3y ago
  Meta are doing that dumb metaverse shit because they see their VR/AR ambitions as allowing them to build their own stable storefront monopoly. Discord also tried to get in on the storefront game, but bailed and are now in ??? mode, spamming users with begging notices for them to subscribe to their premium shit. Note the trend: established social media companies want to get the fuck out of social media. If all that makes a social media network attractive is that it's new, that doesn't make for a very healthy ecosystem. As for Reddit, I guess we'll see what happens. It's just a really big internet forum, the alternatives may not be trendy but neither is Reddit at this point. As you say, Discord is growing, maybe it's time for them to hold the bag and proceed to panic.
  - pmoriarty 3y ago
    If you have a captive audience you can advertise to them. That's what all of this is about, and many companies have made billions with this strategy. Whether the advertising is done by Geocities or MySpace or Facebook doesn't make any difference to the consumer, who's still the product these companies sell to their real customers: the advertisers. Discord can make plenty of money selling ads too, and I would not be at all surprised to see ads in every Discord channel in the future, especially as (unlike Reddit) it doesn't have any third-party clients through which users can circumvent any ads Discord may want to show.
    - scheeseman486 3y ago
      "Discord can make money selling ads too, and I would not be at all surprised to see ads in every Discord channel in the future, especially as (unlike Reddit) it doesn't have any third-party clients through which users can circumvent any ads Discord may want to show." This sounds really uncool, like something that would make a trendy new social media platform flush with investment attractive! That it's all about ads is the recurring problem.
      - pmoriarty 3y ago
        The people who complain about ads are the kind that use ad blockers -- ie. a small minority of internet users. Ordinary people don't complain about ads, don't know that ad blockers even exist, and don't seek out ad-free alternatives. Ads to them are like water is to fish.
        scheeseman486 3y ago
        Users with adblockers in the US was at 25% in 2019 with adoption steadily growing over the years, based on a quick google search at least. But even if it was 10% that wouldn't be a "small minority" and provides an explanation for recent efforts from platforms to force adblockers out. There's also a fair number of people who might not install an adblocker but don't engage with advertising, click through rates are even lower than the number of people who have adblockers installed. Online ads aren't sustainable, it's a grift prolonged by advertising fraud.

pmoriarty 3y ago

I don't see monetization efforts as what drives users away, but rather seeing a new, trendy alternative and the old sites seeming antiquated by comparison. "It's where all the cool kids are" draws people in. The extreme outrage amongst mainstream users over Reddit trying to earn a buck here is an anomaly. In Reddit's case there is no trendy alternative to migrate over to, so all the users taking their ball and angrily stomping off will be back.

scheeseman486 3y ago
Meta are doing that dumb metaverse shit because they see their VR/AR ambitions as allowing them to build their own stable storefront monopoly. Discord also tried to get in on the storefront game, but bailed and are now in ??? mode, spamming users with begging notices for them to subscribe to their premium shit. Note the trend: established social media companies want to get the fuck out of social media. If all that makes a social media network attractive is that it's new, that doesn't make for a very healthy ecosystem. As for Reddit, I guess we'll see what happens. It's just a really big internet forum, the alternatives may not be trendy but neither is Reddit at this point. As you say, Discord is growing, maybe it's time for them to hold the bag and proceed to panic.
- pmoriarty 3y ago
  If you have a captive audience you can advertise to them. That's what all of this is about, and many companies have made billions with this strategy. Whether the advertising is done by Geocities or MySpace or Facebook doesn't make any difference to the consumer, who's still the product these companies sell to their real customers: the advertisers. Discord can make plenty of money selling ads too, and I would not be at all surprised to see ads in every Discord channel in the future, especially as (unlike Reddit) it doesn't have any third-party clients through which users can circumvent any ads Discord may want to show.
  - scheeseman486 3y ago
    "Discord can make money selling ads too, and I would not be at all surprised to see ads in every Discord channel in the future, especially as (unlike Reddit) it doesn't have any third-party clients through which users can circumvent any ads Discord may want to show." This sounds really uncool, like something that would make a trendy new social media platform flush with investment attractive! That it's all about ads is the recurring problem.
    - pmoriarty 3y ago
      The people who complain about ads are the kind that use ad blockers -- ie. a small minority of internet users. Ordinary people don't complain about ads, don't know that ad blockers even exist, and don't seek out ad-free alternatives. Ads to them are like water is to fish.
      - scheeseman486 3y ago
        Users with adblockers in the US was at 25% in 2019 with adoption steadily growing over the years, based on a quick google search at least. But even if it was 10% that wouldn't be a "small minority" and provides an explanation for recent efforts from platforms to force adblockers out. There's also a fair number of people who might not install an adblocker but don't engage with advertising, click through rates are even lower than the number of people who have adblockers installed. Online ads aren't sustainable, it's a grift prolonged by advertising fraud.